I was a huge CSI fan in season one, then school commitments kept me from it for the next two years, and I forgot about it last year. I'm back into season 4, though.
I've been wondering why the show is such a ratings juggernaught, and I think there's a few answers.
The least interesting answers are the most obvious - the cool tech stuff and the gore. We all like the various gadgets and replays of how the victim's body was traumatized.
But there's more important stuff going on. I think what really endears this show to its audience is the family-type interplay between the characters. Catherine Willows is the mother. Brown, Stokes & Sidle are the teenagers, and Greg is the bratty little kid.
But it all revolves around Grissom. Age wise, he is paired with the wife/mother figure, Catherine. He is the gruff, distant authority figure. He can be a hardass; he's the disciplinary figure. He offers sage advice, and the team - especially the younger members - clearly want to impress and please him.
Grissom is an idealized father figure in one important way - he can be pleased, and he can admit when he's wrong.
How many people watch CSI, recognize Grissom as human enough to be their father, yet with many of their father's faults removed?
Of course, this means that Sara Sidle and Grissom have an Electra complex thing going on.
This is partly why I don't think the spin offs will work as well - I've only watched them sparingly, and they lack the family element. Once the gore and tech wear out, all they'll have left is the other important factor they share with the original.
Dead nekkid women. My my, but this show loves to play with the connection between death and the erotic. How often are women in bikinis or lingerie found with their limbs spread, or in a come-hither pose? Never contorted in pain. They look like they're sleeping after good sex.
I don't think other cop shows have the same reliance on eroticising death, with the posssible exception of Law & Order: SVU. LO:SVU is different, though; CSI's necrophilia is subtle, not played for shock; it's not overtly violent - just sexy.
Posted by Annie (Member # 295) on :
quote:Dead nekkid women. My my, but this show loves to play with the connection between death and the erotic. How often are women in bikinis or lingerie found with their limbs spread, or in a come-hither pose? Never contorted in pain. They look like they're sleeping after good sex.
Sex and violence. The Victorian horror novel sold on this same principle; not surprisingly, it was infamously popular.
CSI is the same old drivel. Granted, drivel is a lot less sublte these days (it used to be a vampire biting a woman's neck was just sexy and violent enough), but it's the same sick fascination that we're selling.
Any other plot elements are merely accessory to that.
Posted by CStroman (Member # 6872) on :
I've never watched one episode of this show. The premise seems all too far fetched for me. CSI's actually being the ones who solve all the crimes, etc....
I know some people absolutely love it...but just too far fetched from reality for my tastes.
Posted by msquared (Member # 4484) on :
As to the sex part, remember the show does take place in Vegas otherwise known as Sin City. There probably would be a higher percentage of crimes with sex involved. There have been plenty of stories where sex was not involved.
msquared
Posted by mr_porteiro_head (Member # 4644) on :
Spike TV had a marathon of CSI. I watched it for a long time, but then I had to turn it off. I haven't been able to watch again since. I think I saw once grody body too many.
Posted by Olivetta (Member # 6456) on :
CSI (which I watched once or twice to begin with, but lost interest as it wasn't worth climbing up on my bookshelves to fiddle with the TV antenna) has given us one major innovation in entertainment:
The TMI Cam. (also used to great effect in Three Kings ).
That is all.
Posted by TMedina (Member # 6649) on :
Vegas and Miami - both shows tend to have an inordinate number of pretty people either dying or killing, as the case may be.
There is no doubt the show plays up the eye candy factor and undoubtedly it factors into the viewer fascination.
-Trevor
Posted by littlemissattitude (Member # 4514) on :
Okay. Got to defend my favorite show.
I admit it...I started watching CSI in the first season mostly because I have had a low-grade crush on William Peterson ever since I saw "Manhunter" long ago. Shallow, I know, but what can I say? But I stay because the characters are interesting and the writing is good. And where else are you ever going to get a character who has two sets of DNA? Anyway, I don't care that maybe the science isn't always completely realistic. It's called suspension of disbelief.
Also, I love the idea that there is a show on TV whose main characters are basically a bunch of science nerds. Oh, some of them are hip science nerds, but in the final analysis they are nerds. And they even admit it sometimes, and are proud of it. This is not a bad thing.
Posted by MoonRabbit (Member # 3652) on :
My wife is addicted to CSI. CSI, CSI Miami, and now CSI:NY. She thinks CSI:NY is like Millenium, but I think it's a cheap ripoff of Law & Order:SVU. The thing that bugs me the most is the lighting. Everything is shot in muted colors and shades of gray. The indoor scenes are too dark and look like they're shot under fluorescent lights; the characters look sallow and unhealthy, and the whole thing is just depressing.
Of course, I watch Harvey Birdman, Futurama and Monster House, so I'm not one to talk.
Posted by mr_porteiro_head (Member # 4644) on :
What's a TMI cam? Posted by CStroman (Member # 6872) on :
quote: Everything is shot in muted colors and shades of gray.
For that "Saving Private Ryan" grungie metro look.
I think (judging by the ads as I have never seen the show, but just clips) is that they are going for a:
"It's a cold heartless city of crime and murder where only these few men and women are willing to stand against the grey."
type thing.
Posted by sarcasticmuppet (Member # 5035) on :
I don't know what TMI stands for, but having seen both CSI and The Three Kings, I'd assume that it's a technique that shows the body being wounded from the inside. You see the bullet/knife/ice pick going through the innards.
Posted by Da_Goat (Member # 5529) on :
TMI means "too much information" in slang, so...the "too much information" camera?
Anyway, I've only seen a couple episodes of CSI. One of them had no scantily clad people. Lots of gore, but no sexy dead women. I can hardly remember seeing -any- woman that was vital to the storyline. In fact, the big mystery ended up having to do with a male homosexual relationship.
The other one, though, had strippers in boatloads.
Posted by TMedina (Member # 6649) on :
Actually, the fun part about CSI - most if not all of the cases are inspired by real life events or relatively sound, if highly improbable circumstances.
So if you're willing to suspend disbelief for a bit, it falls just within the realm of possibility, if more than a bit unlikely.
I still point out the number of "attractive" people vastly outnumber the average looking people on every show. Which is to be expected, but still...
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